Search Constraints
Search Results
- Description:
- This paper calls for a critical appraisal of the use of the politically loaded words which are normally associated with liberation struggles. It suggests that these terms are often vaguely defined and mean different things to different publics. Their constant use, therefore, tends to obscure the message and to create a communication gap. The writer subscribes to the view that, contrary to the intention of the message senders, many of the descriptors used present a denigrating image of the groups they set out to help and that both these descriptors as well as the criteria for classifying the groups should be reconsidered. This she thinks, is one of the important assignments which development communicators should undertake.
- Date Issued:
- 1987-01-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Africa Media Review
- Description:
- This article critiques a specific systems theorist in terms of academic mythmaking. Barthes (1972) argues that myths contain a kernel of truth for "the form does not suppress meaning, it only impoverishes it. But the kernel is hardly the whole corn, and if it is substituted for the whole, it will mislead any attempt to understand that whole. In this paper, I will show how this self-deception affects the systems theorist's analysis, and his practical efforts to transform social processes outside the confines of academia. The "kernel of truth" is taken as the whole truth, and hence distorts, misleads and mythologises concepts and processes upon which the analysis is based. Three articles are critically examined in view of the potential of self-deception and show that the systems analysis discussed cannot provide new insights into the "complex process of political communication" beyond entrenching the prevailing order.
- Date Issued:
- 1994-01-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Africa Media Review
- Description:
- This paper examines mass media bias in Nigerian political communications. It argues that ownership of the mass media in Nigeria tends to determine how they are used for political communications in the country. Other factors, such as ethnicity, religion, literacy, language of communication, legal limitations, political and socio-economic conditions, are also considered. The paper maintains, however, that the fact of ownership is not only the key which determines how the mass media are used for moulding the citizen's perception of political reality in the country, but that it is also a more precise means of understanding and investigating the role of the press in political stability or instability, national integration or disintegration. It concludes that as Nigeria approaches a third attempt at democratic rule in socio-economic conditions which are less propitious than in the past, there is a need for the Nigerian mass media to operate in a way which contributes to national integration. It suggests the need to restructure the media ownership pattern and to establish a Nigerian Media Advisory Council.
- Date Issued:
- 1991-01-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Africa Media Review